Kingfisher Airlines fails to provide revival plan

Grounded Kingfisher Airlines on Wednesday made another attempt to convince DGCA on its revival plans, but failed to provide any details on its funding which the aviation regulator wanted.

Kingfisher CEO Sanjay Agarwal met Director General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) Arun Mishra in New Delhi for 45 minutes to apprise him of the prevailing scenario facing the airline, but sources said he gave no information about any commitment by the airline's parent company, UB Group, on financing the revival plan.

The sources said Agarwal told the regulator that the airline would be ready to resume operations from the Summer Schedule, that begins in April.

The Kingfisher chief said the airline has not received no-objection certificates from any of the airport operators, including the Airports Authority of India, though he claimed that some of the oil companies and aircraft leasing companies have given it a go-ahead.

Today's meeting comes days ahead of a crucial meeting of a consortium of bankers that have lent over Rs 7,500 crore to the now defunct airline.

The consortium has been refusing to lend any more money to the airline till the promoters bring in more funds. The airline suspended operations on October 11, last year and its operating licence lapsed on December 31.

In the recent past, civil aviation ministry officials had made it clear that they were not satisfied by Kingfisher's plans to invest Rs 650 crore as it might not guarantee efficient and reliable services.

"The revival plan, which was submitted by the airline, had lot of issues regarding lenders and staff payment which we felt may not lead to reliable services," a senior officer had said, adding it had no provision for payment to airport operators.

Salaries and allowances of the staff have also been pending for over eight months now, while the airline owes money to airport operators, oil companies and other vendors.